Gerd Müller, who in this picture was playing the 1974 World Cup final against the Netherlands, died on August 15 at the age of 75.
(Photo: STAFF / AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) -
The great German footballer Gerd Müller, who scored a surprising 566 goals in 607 official matches for Bayern Munich, died this Sunday at the age of 75, the Bundesliga club reported.
"Today is a sad and gloomy day for FC Bayern and all its fans," German club president Herbert Hainer said in a statement posted on the team's website.
"Gerd Müller was the best forward ever, and an excellent person and personality in world football."
Nicknamed "Der Bomber", Müller still holds the record for goals (365) in the Bundesliga.
He also scored 68 goals in 62 games for the West German team.
"Then there is a boom, then there is a roar, and everyone shouts: 'Yes, Müller scored!' Was the lyrics of a song that the Bayern player himself set to music during his career as a footballer, according to the website of FIFA.
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Gerd Müller averaged almost one goal per game for Bayern Munich.
Gerd Müller achievements, "unmatched to this day"
After joining Bayern Munich in 1964, Müller won four Bundesliga titles, four German Cups, three European Cups, the European Cup Winners' Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, a competition between the winners of the European Cup and the Libertadores Cup. South America.
"His achievements are unmatched to this day," said Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn.
"As a player and as a person, Gerd Müller represents FC Bayern and its development to become one of the greatest clubs in the world like no other."
In the 1974 World Cup final, Müller scored West Germany's winning goal 2-1 against the Netherlands.
Two years earlier he was part of the team that won the 1972 Euro Cup, scoring two goals in a 3-0 victory against the Soviet Union in the final.
"The DFB mourns the passing of one of the greatest German footballers of all time. Rest in peace, Gerd Müller. Our thoughts are with his wife and family at this time," the German Football Federation tweeted.
After retiring, Müller remained at Bayern for a long time as a youth coach, according to the Bundesliga club.
"Name and memory will live forever"
Müller is survived by his wife Uschi and a daughter, according to the Bayern website.
"We are all united in a deep mourning with his wife Uschi, as well as his family," Hainer added.
"FC Bayern would not be the club we all love today without Gerd Müller. His name and his memory will live on forever."
After retiring, Müller remained at Bayern working as a youth coach.
However, in his last years of life he suffered from dementia, according to the FIFA website in November 2020, and lived in a residence south of Munich, where he was regularly visited by his wife.
Uschi Müller said her husband "is in bed for almost 24 hours a day and only wakes up for a few moments," she told the Bild newspaper.
"4EVER GERD"
In May, current Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski broke the Bundesliga record of 40 goals in a season held by Müller until then and held from the 1971-72 season.
In the last minute of Bayern Munich's 5-2 win over Augsburg on May 22, the Polish forward rebounded from a shot from Leroy Sane and scored his 41st goal of the season.
That match was the last of the 2020/2021 season.
Lewandowski had already tied Müller's 49-year-old record the previous weekend, later showing a T-shirt in tribute to the legendary Bayern striker that read "4EVER GERD."
Lewandowski is second on the Bundesliga's all-time goalscorer list, with 277 goals, behind only Müller's 365.
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